Present-day detectors do not have any capacity to measure the wavelength of an incident photon. At best, there exist superconductivity techniques of the Superconducting Tunnel Junction (STJ) type which are very complex to use and which offer only limited spectral resolution.
Photochemical molecules are also known that are capable of keeping memories of the wavelengths of the photons, but such molecules are limited to a very narrow spectral domain and require conversion using a costly scanner.
Furthermore, in general, field spectroscopy is performed by means of voluminous spectroscopes that distribute light over a two-dimensional detector.
In addition to such present-day detectors, it should be mentioned that, as early as 1891, Gabriel Lippmann proposed a detector based on silver halide sensitization in the thickness of a gelatin and using the effect produced by light reflecting off a mirror so as to generate a standing wave.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,102 discloses a method and a system for transmitting information by optical fiber. A light signal is emitted by a system based on a laser which multiplexes the information by using the inverse Lippmann effect. In the portion of U.S. Pat. No. '102 that addresses decoding the signal, it discloses a multiplexing system based on the Lippmann effect. Reference is then made to a light-sensitive medium disposed like its laser emission system, but a working practical embodiment is not given.
U.S. Pat. No. '102 discloses the use of the Lippmann effect, but it is limited to a narrow spectral domain of the same order as the bandwidth of the laser.